Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life

Written by Philip Eade

Narrated by William Rycroft

The Sunday Times bestseller

‘Highly readable … deserves to take its place among the first rank of modern royal biographies’ Daily Mail

'Sure footed and sparkling' Ferdinand Mount

‘The narrative is as suspenseful as any thriller. Truly, an excellent read’ Lynn Barber, Sunday Times

Married for over seventy years to the most famous woman in the world, Prince Philip is the longest-serving royal consort in British history. Yet his origins have remained curiously shrouded in obscurity.

In the first book to focus exclusively on his life before the coronation, acclaimed biographer Philip Eade uncovers the extraordinary story of the prince’s turbulent upbringing in Greece, France and Nazi Germany, during which his mother spent five years in a secure psychiatric clinic and his father left him to be brought up by his Mountbatten relations in England just when he needed him most.

Remarkably the young prince emerged from this unsettled background a character of singular vitality and dash – self-confident, capable, famously opinionated and devastatingly handsome. Girls fell at his feet, and the princess who was to become his wife was smitten from the age of thirteen.

Yet alongside the considerable charm and intelligence, the prince was also prone to volcanic outbursts and to putting his foot in it. Detractors perceived in his behaviour emotional shortcomings, a legacy of his traumatic childhood, which would have profound consequences for his family and the future of the monarchy.

Containing new material from interviews, archives and film footage, this revelatory biography is the most complete and compelling account yet of his storm-tossed early life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Jun 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9780007524877

Reviews for Young Prince Philip

[taphophile13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eade’s biography of Philip begins with the funeral of a young mother who died in a terrible accident; Philip marches in the cortege. This is not Diana, but rather Philip’s sister Cecile—eight months pregnant at the time—who along with her husband and two sons was en route to London to attend the wedding of a family member. They all died when their plane crashed in bad weather. Philip was just sixteen, only slightly older than William when Diana died.Philip’s great-grandfather Christian IX was an impoverished Danish prince who inherited the throne of Denmark after the death of a distant relative. His second son was invited to take the empty Greek throne even though he was only seventeen. George I of Greece as he was known undertook the task of learning the Greek language and culture and ruling a country that had just freed itself from the Ottoman Empire. He was succeeded by his oldest son, Philip’s uncle Constantine I. As the son of the George’s fourth son Andrea (Andrew), Philip could not be expected to inherit the Greek throne. In 1924, when Philip was a toddler of two, the anti-royalist feelings sweeping Greece forced the royal family into exile. Only six years later Philip’s mother, who had been born deaf, descended into a mental crisis which caused her family to force her into the Lake Constance Bellvue sanatorium. Philip did not have any contact with her for the next five years. He became a virtual orphan as his father, wanting to live with his mistress, sent him off to boarding schools first in England and later in Germany where Nazi influence was growing. Philip was an adequate student but often did not feel that he fit in anywhere. He did not have a surname, he did not have a real home and he never was sure where or with whom he would be spending holidays. In addition, he worried that his mother’s illness might be hereditary. As a result of all this upheaval, he did not really feel at home anywhere until he joined the English navy. As a descendant of Queen Victoria he is related to the royal family and did occasionally visit various relatives. It was during one such visit at Dartmouth that Princess Elizabeth first met him. We already know that she was instantly smitten but we are not told what his first impression was nor do we learn any details of Philip’s wooing. The English people were reluctant to see their princess marry a foreign prince and courtiers looked upon him as uncultured. It was necessary for Philip to become a naturalized British citizen which entailed deciding on a surname. His meddling uncle Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten hoped Philip would take his name and that the royal family would henceforth be known by the Mountbatten name. The book ends shortly after Elizabeth’s coronation. The penultimate paragraph states “Philip never liked sycophancy, yet neither did he take well to criticism.” Eade continues describing Philip in the past tense which gives the odd sensation that one is reading a eulogy.Eade goes into a great deal of detail about minutiae such as where the silk for Elizabeth’s wedding gown came from and what her typical breakfast included. He even goes so far as to tell us that Philip’s Comptroller and Treasurer was Frederick Browning, former chief of staff to “Dickie” Mountbatten and that Browning, husband of Daphne DuMaurier, was portrayed by Dirk Bogarde in the movie A Bridge Too Far. None of this gives us any insight into Philip’s personality or views. One can infer that the tragedies and disruptions he experienced in childhood served to make him cautious and slow to trust but very little direct evidence is presented. Philip remains a shadowy background figure.Simplified family trees help to keep the relationships straight among the interlaced royal houses of Europe and the text is generously foot-noted. This is an Advance Reader’s Edition which does not include the eight pages of black and white photographs that are in the regular edition.

[vanderschloot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What most of know about Prince Philip comes from the movie "The Queen" and from the offensive, absurd, and/or silly soundbites we get to hear on the news. He's a bit of a PR nightmare. All of this paints a picture of him as curmudgeonly and not very bright. Because the royals are notoriously private, it should come as no surprise that the public has a very unbalanced view of Prince Philip. Eade's book is in large part an attempt to redress this imbalance. Even though this is a largely sympathetic view of Prince Philip, one can imagine that he would still be embarrassed to see the details of his early life in print like this. Nevertheless, kudos to Eade for attempting to offer a different view of a member of this very private family. It's a well-written account that is, thankfully, not overly dependent on gossip and the scant information that is already public knowledge.

[iambookish-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I knew nothing about the Duke of Edinburgh before reading the book, well that's not totally true...I knew about his many moments of "open mouth, insert foot"...
I found the book fascinating and learned much about Philip. One being that he was an equal match in royal pedigree to his bride Elizabeth. I had no idea! It's a wonder that a man's man like Philip has been able to serve his Queen these many long years without exploding with frustration.
I do wish that the author had including a lineage chart to more easily explain the relations between all the royals, but all and all a great book.

[apurdie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this as a companion to Pamela (Mountbatten) Hicks's memoir, Daughter of Empire, a really fascinating look at life in the British upper class and royal circles in the early 20th century. Pamela's cousin, Philip, now the Duke of Edinburgh, popped in and out of that book, piquing my interest. This biography is a thorough exploration of his family's background, his unusual childhood and family life after post-exile from Greece, and his courtship and early years of marriage to the future Queen Elizabeth. There are many recollections from friends and colleagues as well as snippets of personal letters exchanged between family members, adding to the feeling that this is as complete and balanced portrait as one can produce without direct access to the subject.

[knightlight777 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An enjoyable easy read biography of an interesting man. Eade seems to take a neutral view on his life with a fairly balanced account. I cannot imagine any of the royals are thrilled to be written about but being in the public domain as they are all is fair.Focused primarily his early life up to the early married life to the Queen, Eade shows how this man of royal birth weathered a very turbulent upbringing being passed off from one relative to the other in the absence of his recovering mother and his unattached father. Through it all he seems to hold up quite well primarily through the close guidance of his devoted uncle, Dickie Mountbatten.The sometimes awkward melding into the Royal Family of England took some maneuvering as there was certainly opposition from many quarters. It is clear though Queen Elizabeth had her sights set on him from an early age.Despite some of his shortcomings such as his noted prickliness and resentment of forgoing his Naval career manages to perform well enough in his duties to the Crown. His much rumored dalliances outside of the marriage are glossed over leaving it up to deduction that in the day and age of this society it is fairly common. Ultimately is suggested that the Queen benefited most from having this man at her side and he brought quite a bit out of the shell to take on the many demands of her position. Sadly we in the news we here increasingly of his failing health, but in his early 90's now he can look back to having measured up quite well.

[laurabrook_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An ER win, I sadly have to say that I'm glad I didn't lay out any cold hard cash for this book. Told from before his birth up through the first year of his marriage to the future Queen, I had a difficult time following the narrative. It just wasn't that readable for me. It's clear that Mr. Eade did his homework, but there wasn't any flow to his writing. Some tidbits were familiar, others weren't, and while I can't say that I've read anything else specifically about Prince Philip before, I don't think that I feel the need to any longer. Rec'd only for fans of the British Royal Family. A generous 3 stars, mostly for research and effort.

[kegsoccer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've never read anything on Prince Philip, but I'd say that this book is a pretty good overview of everything I ever wanted to know. To who the man was before he married Queen Elizabeth II, to who he became afterwards, Eade reveals it in an interesting way. Recommended.

[joycebl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Philip Eade’s book Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II is a fascinating account of the life of the man who gave up a promising and exciting military career in the British Navy to stand in the shadows behind one of the most famous women on earth, and to be relegated to walking 6 paces behind for the rest of his life.If you were to cast actors to play the various parts of the people who filled Prince Philip’s life and then show the story on daytime American TV, no one would believe it wasn’t made-up. From his earliest days when his family was ousted from their royal seat as monarchs of Greece, to his mother’s total deafness and then her hospitalization in an asylum for a “nervous breakdown”, to his philandering father who abandoned his family and lived the high life in southern France and Monaco with various mistresses, and the deaths of his sister, her husband and children in a plane wreck, the marriage of two of his other sisters to Nazis (one of them in the SS), Philip’s education in Germany at a school that became increasingly pro-Hitler, to his having nowhere to call home until he married Princess Elizabeth, the heir to the English throne. Sounds like very creative soap opera material to me. But all of that disordered life helped form the strong and charming character of Philip Of Greece, otherwise known as Philip Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh and finally Prince Philip. Philip is a complex man as is described in this statement “But as well as the quarrels [with Queen Elizabeth], there always seemed to be plenty of laughter, and, although some thought Philip something of a ‘cold fish’, others witnessed a great deal of sensitivity an tenderness. I was grateful that the four pages of the genealogy of Philip’s and Elizabeth’s families were included in the book and I often referred to them as the story unfolded. American readers may still be confused by the titles which change as people die and others get married. There are also many other references to things unknown. For instance, on page 281, the author remarks that Philip “often attended dinners alone and gave speeches while she [Elizabeth] remained behind to work on her boxes or watch television or do the crossword”. Boxes? Is that an arts and crafts project or a reference to diplomatic documents? Sometimes the book seems to be a collection of facts, all of which needed to be stuffed somewhere. At times, the sentences don’t hang together, with phrases inserted merely, it seems, because they existed on a note card having been jotted there during the research phase of the writing of the biography. But on the whole, the account is thorough and captivating, and I feel like I know what made Prince Philip who he is.

[historicalreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Prince Philip is not usally a subject I want to read about when it comes to reading books on royalty but when this was up for review I figured why not? I really enjoyed reading about his childhood and the life of his mother Princess Alice.When we look at philip today it is hard to picture him as a dashing blond prince who turned the head of Her Majesty The Queen this book does him some justice in that sense. Reading about his miltary carrer was kind of tedious for me to get through but at the end I enjoyed the book. I cenrtainly will not look at Philip again as the quiet old man who is married to The Queen thanks to Eades book.

[fjumonvi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Where goes Queen Elizabeth II, so goes Prince Philip, the love of her life and her husband for more than sixty years. This excellent biography of the young Philip--from his birth in 1921 until his wife's coronation in 1952--chronicles his formative years. It lends insight into how he has supported and influenced the Queen, not just by participating in public duties but also by sparking her self-confidence and helping her to achieve her full potential. He also applied intelligence and wit to the broader sphere of British life; some observers credit him with, for example, helping the British people to view themselves as modern and innovative.When Philip was about ten years old, his family dispersed; his mother had a breakdown and left for the sanitarium, his four older sisters married and left for new homes in Germany, and his father just plain left. He attended boarding school and spent holidays shuttling among various members of his extended family, knowing no real family life until he married, and cultivating an ability to relate to others. Perhaps this extraordinary youth prepared him for a marriage that required exceptional sacrifice, most notably his promising naval career and his surname. Through it all, he has displayed an admirable devotion to Queen and country, and an amazing adaptability.Philip Eade's outstanding biography is respectful, unsensational, and sympathetic without sacrificing objectivity. It is engagingly written and will appeal to readers who enjoy learning about the lives of others. For royal-watchers, it is a must. Highly recommended.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a fervent royalty I was delighted to receive this new biography of Prince Phillip in his younger years as part of the Early Reviewers. Biographer Phillip Eade is clearly fond of his subject, but not to the point of fawning, and handle's Phillip/s early life with an even handiness not usually found in royal biographies.The prince's family and early childhood can only be called dysfunctional. The Greek royal family that he was born into had never really been regarded as either legitimate or what we would call today "A-List Royalty." And Phillip was born the King's youngest and most rackety son, Andrea (known in England as Andrew). Through his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg (now Mountbatten) he was also related to the English royal family. In fact, thank God or the two sets of family trees at the beginning of the book as it's hard to keep all the various relationships straight - and EVERYONE seems to be somehow related.Exiled from Greece in one of the many political upheavals in that country (some things never seem to change in Greece) Phillip and his family go to live in Paris, sponging off relatives.The family home there, however doesn't last for long as Prince Andrea leaves his wife and the family home is broken up as Princess Alice suffers a total breakdown as a result and is institutionalized. Phillip's older sisters quickly marry (unfortunately to Germans who will all embrace the Nazi cause) but the much younger Phillip is shuttled from one set of his mother's relatives to another. Today his sad upbringing would be a cause to report the whole family to CPS for child abuse. Phillip, however, was (and is) a survivor. He finds his feet at Gordonstoun, the spartan school in Scotland where his own son was to be so famously unhappy. He then, with his Uncle Dickie Mountbatten's help went on to forge a promising career in the Navy.Handsome and charming, if a bit blunt spoken, Phillip meets his younger cousin Princess Elizabeth while he was at Naval college and she was only 13. She was clearly smitten with him on sight, and although he had several other romances, his Uncle Dickie, always a man with high dynastic ambitions clearly nudged the relationship forward - sometimes in ways way to obvious.The treatment of the prince by Buckingham Palace's courtiers (the old gray men as Princess Diana called them) is reminiscent of the complaints of his son's wives as they entered palace life. It must be simply awful to marry into that family and have to endure the stultifying traditions that go along with it. But endure he did for more than 60 years.As Queen Elizabeth prepares to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee next year, it's instructive to read about the man who has been at her side for all these years and to, perhaps get a fuller appreciation of the role he has played in her reign.

[michigantrumpet_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Philip Eade’s biography of the early life of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, treads a careful middle ground. It is authoritative, but isn’t magisterial and academic in scope. By avoiding being syncophantic and including much that would displease the Royal family, this isn’t tabloid fare either. Overall, Eade’s journalistic background shows in careful sourcing and a well-balanced approach. I particularly appreciate that Eade didn’t indulge in the amateurish psychoanalysis which pervades biographical work these days. This highly readable and enjoyable result covers matters from Philip’s family background – none of whom were actually Greek – to Elizabeth II’s coronation.Eade’s eye for the telling detail brings humanity and affecting life to people and times, most often frozen in black and white photographs. (My Early Reviewer Copy indicated that the finalized version would include 8 pages of pictures.) His grandfather’s (George I of Greece, b. 1845) family in Denmark was bumptious and informal, apt to “make funny noises and yell if they saw anyone trying to write a letter.” George I had such a tendency of rocking up onto his toes, that a visitor had to fight the hypnotic temptation to imitate him. At the time George had been invited as monarch, Greece had undergone 42 changes in government in 25 years. Meeting with his cabinet, his watch and inkstand were stolen while his back was turned. Such chaotic politics doomed the efforts of subsequent monarch’s such as Philip’s father, Andrea (or Andrew), to rule effectively. (It also illuminates present era upheavals in Greece!) Andrea had to flee the country to avoid possible execution. His family hastily joined him with a few belongings after burning papers and letters. Toddler Philip slept in a fruit crate as the ship took them to exile in France. Eade also details Philip’s years at Gordonstoun, where he was a solid student, whose chief faults were intolerance and impatience, but he did not “know what boredom is” when intent on discharging his duties. It was there that his lifelong love affair with the sea and sailing developed. From there, he went on to a decorated career in the Royal Navy during WWII. I was particularly taken with the tale of how he ordered a raft with smoking pots to be set adrift as a decoy, helping his ship to float away and avoid a fatal nighttime air attack. There are touches of humor, too. During the Coronation rehearsal, the Duke of Norfolk cried, “If the bishops don’t learn to walk in step, we’ll be here all night.” Noel Coward identified a tiny Sultan, riding in an open carriage next to the huge Queen of Tonga as “Her Lunch.” Most moving to me were those glimpses of human emotion behind the Royal masks. George VI’s great love for his daughter is so palpably evident. He was near tears when they signed the marriage register, saying “It is a far more moving thing to give away your daughter than to be married yourself.” Philip’s willing sacrifice to marry Elizabeth, renouncing his titles, religion and even family – his sisters, married to German nobility, were not allowed to attend his wedding. How hurtful, then, that it was decreed that the family would continue to styled the House of Windsor. Philip noted that he was only man in England who couldn’t pass his own name onto his children. While I would have appreciated more explication placing Philip’s early life into context with what occurred later, this detracted little from the book.

[annesion · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In many ways this biography of Prince Phillip screams of 'tabloid journalism', The familiar stories are included; his getting sick in a top hat, his preference for sleeping in the nude, and his unwavering support of his wife. At least two times in the book the author writes of Phillip's interest in the paranormal informing us that he even had a subscription to a Flying Saucer magazine! Despite the the sensationalism of the work I did find it very entertaining. Fans of [[Kitty Kelley's]], [The Royal's], will delight in this book. Eade presents the Prince as a likable fellow, and forgives him for his less than flattering use of inappropriate remarks about race and nationality.However if you are looking for a scholarly biography about the Prince, this is not your book. As the book points out no true comprehensive biography of Prince Phillip has been written for several decades. The book does shed some light on the early tribulations of the man namely his being bandied about to different relatives as neither of his parents seemed overly concerned or capable with providing a stable home for him, and his relationship with his mother's Mountbatten relations. The book mentions his familial connections to the Nazi regime during WWII, but the subject seemed to be glossed over.